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Amber Notes
Once again Rypma weaves words into poetic patterns that explore everything from the forbidden fruits to the healing gems of our lives. In this latest book, Amber Notes, she also “transports us across a lifetime and around the globe,” as Atlanta Review editor Dan Veach puts it. Richard Katrovas, author of 14 books, concurs, adding that “an insect in amber is the perfect emblem for this dance.”
82 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 11, 2021
Your poetry is like finding shiny gems of treasure everywhere. Poems that I liked & Loved: Baling, Mineral Love, Fireflies, Writer's Block, White Nights, Mother Earth, Amber, Hunger, Amber Spindles, The Cure, Amber Love, Evolution, Mineral Treasures.
March 14, 2018
We are the publisher, so all of our authors get five stars from us. Excerpts:
WRITER’S BLOCK
I.
Sticky resins exuded
from evergreens
capture a spider
intent on reaching her mate
yet for a while she futilely
spins belly thread—
creation process stymied
for millions of years.
II.
Only one piece of amber
out of a thousand
yields an insect
and fifty-four percent
are flies—the most ordinary
least functional or capable
of producing anything
that might ever interest anyone.
THE CURE
They once claimed
it fights depression
so I wear mine dangling
near my heart—area
most often ill, broken
though it really belongs
haloed around my brain—
golden mood balancer
though you’d think decades
of honey-blonde hair
would’ve worked
or so Nero’s wife believed—
ordering her court ladies
to dye their hair to match
amber’s hue.
Roman and Greek citizens
stroked its strands
to absorb their negative energy
transmute it into
positive ions.
Copernicus heated his
for a daily cordial
perhaps when he realized
the value of tilting one’s axis
toward the warming sun.
Much later, desperate for relief
I finger these beads
in shades of buttercup, primrose, dandelion—
not sure which will yield
the right powders, oils
hope only
to soften the anger
and free the insect
trapped inside me.
WRITER’S BLOCK
I.
Sticky resins exuded
from evergreens
capture a spider
intent on reaching her mate
yet for a while she futilely
spins belly thread—
creation process stymied
for millions of years.
II.
Only one piece of amber
out of a thousand
yields an insect
and fifty-four percent
are flies—the most ordinary
least functional or capable
of producing anything
that might ever interest anyone.
THE CURE
They once claimed
it fights depression
so I wear mine dangling
near my heart—area
most often ill, broken
though it really belongs
haloed around my brain—
golden mood balancer
though you’d think decades
of honey-blonde hair
would’ve worked
or so Nero’s wife believed—
ordering her court ladies
to dye their hair to match
amber’s hue.
Roman and Greek citizens
stroked its strands
to absorb their negative energy
transmute it into
positive ions.
Copernicus heated his
for a daily cordial
perhaps when he realized
the value of tilting one’s axis
toward the warming sun.
Much later, desperate for relief
I finger these beads
in shades of buttercup, primrose, dandelion—
not sure which will yield
the right powders, oils
hope only
to soften the anger
and free the insect
trapped inside me.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews